Sky Puts NOW TV Price Rise on Hold – Gives No Reason

Sky’s broadband-based NOW TV video streaming service, which includes access to ten major live premium TV channels like Sky One and Sky Atlantic via the Entertainment Pass, has put their 29th May 2014 plans for a 40% price hike on hold.

The Internet streaming service had intended to increase the monthly cost of their Entertainment Pass from £4.99 to £6.99, while the Sky Movies Pass would have seen a smaller rise from £8.99 to £9.99. However a post by one of Sky’s Community Managers on the original price rise thread (here) reveals that this has now been suspended.

Now TV Statement

Hi Everyone,

Just want to let you know that the price rise is being put on hold. Entertainment Month Passes will continue to be £4.99 a month, and Sky Movies Month Passes will continue to be £8.99 per month.

We’re in the process of updating the entire NOW TV site with this information, but it should all be correct very soon.

Thanks,

Jen-S

The service has struggled due to a mix of frustrating “Rights Restrictions”, which prevent some TV shows from being aired (here), and problems with adapting to the capacity demands of customers when popular shows like Game of Thrones are being streamed (here). But no reason has been given for the latest suspension.

Ha,ha, So “The service has struggled due to a mix of frustrating “Rights Restrictions”, which prevent some TV shows from being aired in the uk” is this the same antiquated copyright acts that the big corporations like sky,Are so in favour of upholding (their web site filtering/blocking)of totrrent web sites ect ?
Poor sky,lol they should be careful what they wish for
Regionalised copyright is outdated and actually helps fuel online piracy,

another website i saw thinks it is due to game of thrones hasn’t finished airing. A lot of people will have signed up for that and would be very annoyed if the price was higher than what they budgeted for. I think there are around 6 eps left so maybe the price rise will happen in 6 weeks time once the series has finished.

What a mess. They should have just gone through with the modest price rises after announcing them. Most reasonable consumers will accepted them as fair, competitive and affordable.

Pulling the plug now will only be acceptable if they have changed strategy and it’s not some short-term decision designed to appease a small group of people for a short period of time (something Sky never does). It may be a good idea for example to hold off on the price increase until Netflix increases its prices by the expected £2 a month. But I really don’t see Netflix as serious competition. Sky has all the best content, movies, tv shows. Netflix is a sub-standard library of low value content.

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